As soon as I saw this offered, I knew I had to jump on it — I’m am Earl Grey Fiend and I loved what A&D did with their last Earl. As always, it came lickety-split (with an AWESOME Mount Gray magnet. Thank you! I love the little clever extras A&D include with their teas!).

I think this might be my favorite A&D tin yet. The hand catching the plane! The bear on the top! The wood grain! The color (or mostly lack thereof) scheme! Well done, well done.

Ok, the tea. It’s supremely bergamot-y. The tea base is good and robust. I wanted to take it plain, so I only steeped it for three minutes. Perfect. I can see this one at 4 minutes with milk and sugar if I was in the mood for that, but I wouldn’t take it over three minutes if you are going to drink it plain. It resteeps beautifully. Lighter on the bergamot, but the tea is still completely flavorful and similar to many teas first steeps.

I don’t want to get embroiled in gender politics, but this is a manly Earl Gray if I ever tasted one. I love my delicate Earls, but for those times that you want to cut through exhaustion and fog — this is your man. This is an Earl at 11 :) Great for work, great for school. Love, love, love.

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Bio

I love to cook, bake, read, paint, knit, do needlework, and garden. I need my coffee, but I LOVE my tea. I work at an Art School, and attend a large public university doing post-bac work (my BA is in English). I’m interested in the liminal spaces between art and craft, the academic and the practical, the individual and community, and the old and the new. I’m currently exploring these ideas through the disciplines of education, literature, history, and psychology.

I enjoy writing tasting notes, but have decided not to numerically rate teas as of 9/14/10. For an explanation, see my looooong tasting note about Mountain Malt from the Simple Leaf.

My favorites:
Chinese black teas
A good “milk and sugar” English style black
Earl Grey (classic, and in all variations!)
Vanilla teas (classic, and in all variations!)
Jasmine, Rose, Violet and other froofy, flowery teas!
An Occasional Oolong
Flavored Rooibos
Herbal Tisanes